


Proving the Burden of Command

by Merfilly



Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: Charity Auctions, M/M, Pre-Canon, War Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-07
Updated: 2011-09-07
Packaged: 2017-10-23 12:49:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/250473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Early after Starscream brings his trine to the command, Megatron tests them with a mission.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Proving the Burden of Command

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cmdrtekk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cmdrtekk/gifts).



> Written for the generous donation in Somalia's time of need

The summons from Megatron brought Starscream into the command center within Kaon quickly. Rumor had it that the new SiC and his leader had been disagreeing intently in War Council, prompting others to decide if they would throw their lot in with Shockwave or Soundwave when Megatron finally blasted the Seeker into oblivion.

Much hatred for the Seeker, and hope for his downfall, ran deep in many segments of the army, segments that had followed other officers, only to see them fall to Megatron's wrath at the words of the poisonous mech. Some could not prove their suspicions as clearly, as their chosen leaders had simply turned up dead or gone missing during Starscream's climb to power.

Many said that his skills at keeping his armor intact were only rivaled by his ability to assassinate any who wished him deactivated.

For him to respond with such alacrity to Megatron indicated one thing to all the onlookers: the Seeker knew he was in a tenuous position and would thus do anything to keep favor with the ex-gladiator.

"Lord Megatron, you bellowed?" Starscream asked, voice as sickeningly insincere in its concern as he could make it on the audials of those who insisted on listening in. He was a master of using his voice to irritate and unnerve.

The glare for such impudence was clearly malevolent enough to warrant most of the observers turning their attention elsewhere.

"Starscream, I have a mission for you," Megatron said, voice gone raspy and charming. That was more than enough for Starscream to pay very close attention. Megatron in a mood to charm was Megatron with murder and mayhem on the processor, as everyone knew.

"Do tell, mighty Megatron." Such unctuous tones in any other mech almost always resulted in a beating of some kind, yet Megatron only smiled with more satisfaction at whatever he had dreamed up.

"You will take your trine, no more then ten other mechs, and capture the information repositories at Mirrex."

Starscream opened his mouthplates to immediately protest, but the whine of Megatron's fusion cannon was clearly heard before he could. He clamped his mouthplates shut with an audible click, inclining his head.

"Of course, Megatron." That much acknowledgment was almost too much for the strained vocalizer, but Starscream made it, then turned on his heel thruster, leaving the command center.

Those left behind heard the cannon quiet, and then Megatron laughed low and cruel. His recently acquired second would either hand him what he wanted, cementing his position for some cycles to come, or be deactivated by the Autobots. Unless he returned empty handed, Megatron mused. Then, Megatron himself would enjoy seeing what Starscream admitted to in Megatron's own hands.

`~`~`~`~`

Starscream waited until the door had sealed behind him before he let his vocalizer shriek out the irritation he felt. Skywarp started to just dig his talons into Thundercracker and 'warp them elsewhere, but Starscream's optics went to him with purpose as the noise settled, warning him against it.

"We haven't clinched it yet," the Air Commander growled. "All that work I've done, all the maneuvering, and every single piece of my brilliance, and he gives me a mission to rip my own core out with?!"

"We helped," Thundercracker pointed out, but was ignored, at least vocally. The clinging, tightening thrust along the trine bond of vicious possessiveness was a welcome reassurance to both of Starscream's wingmates, even if Skywarp snarled a little, and Thundercracker bristled. They had each learned, even in private, to have guards against the normal affections found within a trine. Affection was weakness, and weakness was soon eradicated in the Decepticon army.

Sometimes, the former Prince of Vos wondered why he had submitted to this instead of carving his own faction out of the war-torn world. Then he remembered that he hated having to deal with administration, and neither of the wingmates he had taken in the wake of losing his original bond-partner had a head for it either. It seemed to be a common failing of their class, and one he had no wish to advertize.

"So what's the mission?" Skywarp asked, idly tracing glyphs into the patrol dust on Thundercracker's wings.

"Mirrex. He wants the information dumps from Mirrex."

Absolute silence fell in the room they shared, broken at last by Thundercracker popping his wings back and squaring them in resolution. "How many troops do we get?"

"No more than ten," Starscream said with a sneer.

"Pits." Skywarp frowned. "Can't you just interface your way around this one?" He tried to joke, and then flinched as Starscream hit him hard in the wingplate. "OW!"

"Skywarp's got a point. Ten's not enough." Thundercracker did not let the next punch land, catching it and then using the grip to wrestle Starscream down onto the berth with them.

"That's why we're going to do it alone," Starscream said, just as soon as his wings were pressed in against Thundercracker's canopy and Skywarp had folded over his legs to look at him with curious optics.

"Did you shake a processor loose?" Thundercracker asked him, hand sliding along an aileron. "If we can't do it with ten more, how can we do it with three?"

"By being as stealthy as necessary and flashy when it counts." Starscream could feel the plan forming already. He filtered some of the details to his trine, and caught their full attention, even as digits strayed on wings and frames. Plotting while they were feeding their desires was nothing new to any of them; it was just one more part of being a trine.

`~`~`~`~`

Mirrex was barely more than an outpost. It had never had a large population, even prior to the war. It was staunchly neutral, and neither Decepticons nor Autobots had managed to convince them, by diplomacy, threat, or force, to be any way other than that. The only reason they mattered at all was because their data streams were said to pull from every city on Cybertron. Supposedly this situation had existed from the dawn of Cybertron's Golden Age, leading to the popular conception that their servers held the sum of all knowledge.

Mirrex had never been conquered in all that time, not even in the worst of the city-state squabbles. That was not from lack of trying, either. Something powerful was hidden within the city, and no one knew just what, for no one who had encountered it had survived to pass the tale on.

Starscream, after his initial despondency over being handed a deadly mission doomed to failure, decided that there was nothing standing in his way. By doing this, by handing Megatron what he wanted from a successful raid, Starscream would emerge on top and no one would be able to unseat him. All it would take was his cunning, Skywarp's talent, and Thundercracker's stubbornness.

`~`~`~`~`

Mirrex, by straight flight, was far away from nearly everywhere else. Its remote location had served it well, and now, the very distance was counting against it in Starscream's opinion. It gave him time to iron out the plot he had devised on just how to capture what they wanted.

::When we arrive, Skywarp will not enter the city with us. We will be his optics, scouting and readying visualizations. I will play up my position as Megatron's own lieutenant in this war, stressing how important it is for Mirrex to accept Decepticon leadership. Thundercracker, you will aid me in this, spreading rumors of what has happened in towns that resisted... or painting the Autobots out to be vile scavengers and looters, dependent on how the city reacts to us.::

Thundercracker had his doubts on either story working, but he did not voice them. Instead, he flicked an acknowledgment, and soothed Skywarp, who never handled waiting well.

::When we know where the servers are, we implant our data miners in them, and condense the knowledge to as few banks as possible, stealing those by having Skywarp bounce to us, take what he can, and return, until we have them all. Simple!::

::Something's going to go wrong,:: Thundercracker finally said; Starscream chose to ignore him.

`~`~`~`~`

The trine stopped short of sight of their target, setting up a concealment for Skywarp to remain within. The other two continued on, then, and landed outside the polished gates, gilt in electrum.

"Rich indeed," Starscream said, noting the metal with avarice in his optics.

::Not here for that.:: Thundercracker’s words served as a solid reminder and helped steer the Air Commander back on track. With all his full swagger and cocky presence, Starscream pushed up to the gates, pleased when they opened to admit him after only a cursory broadcast of his designation. Thundercracker announced his own and pushed on, close on the heels of his trine-mate and ever-observant of their surroundings.

He noted that the few citizens he saw hurried to leave the streets. There was no true traffic, and most of the mechs he saw were the more primitive ones lacking in transformation circuits. Not a single one of those was a war build, and even the lone guard on the gate had only the most basic weapon upgrades.

::Starscream, I’ve got a bad feeling.::

::Of course you do. You always do, Thundercracker. Honestly, have you ever seen a city more open for the taking?::

::That’s what has me wondering what we’re not seeing. Mirrex has never been conquered. Ever. But these mechs couldn’t hold off a pack of cyberweasels, let alone an army!::

::It doesn’t matter. We’re still going to use stealth and superior maneuvering for this,:: Starscream informed him, cutting off further conversation on the matter.

Thundercracker was relieved, though, even as he went silent, because Starscream’s wings edged in a little tighter, an indicator that he was noticing the creepy nature of the city as well. The Air Commander could be -- was -- arrogant to a fault, but there was a cunning, wily nature lurking under it all, which was part of why they had climbed so high as a trine.

`~`~`~`~`

Starscream was less than impressed with the mech who claimed to be merely the 'administrator' of Mirrex, and it was taking all of Thundercracker's skill to keep his trine-mate on track and keep him to the plan.

"We truly would enjoy seeing your full city," Thundercracker finally broke in, when Starscream was on the verge of powering his blasters up to curtail the pretty words that meant nothing. Truthfully, Thundercracker did not blame him, given that the administrator's sole purpose seemed to be boring his guests.

"We'll show you all of it then!" the administrator replied, his faceplates breaking into a full smile. He snapped his fingers, and an honor guard of four primitive mechs joined them, signaling the beginning of the Decepticon recon.

`~`~`~`~`

Even as Thundercracker and Starscream settled into their guest accommodations, each was already processing the tour in light of what they had been shown. The tour had been exhaustive, even showing off the reclamation works. Those, Thundercracker noted sourly, had barely been registering as functional, as if the entire city was locked in stasis and did not require such services.

::How can a deserted little speck of a city keep away all aggressors?:: Starscream demanded, his processors whirling around just where the threat was.

::Perhaps the ones who came all died of boredom first?:: Thundercracker offered.

His trine-mate glared at him. ::Be serious. And where were the servers? Nowhere we went seemed to be an archive!::

Thundercracker opened the link more fully, utilizing his processors to render a full model of the city, laying in the path they had taken, and all the sights they had seen. Starscream began adding to it, linking his processors in tandem, so that between them they had a more solid, three-dimensional outlook on Mirrex.

::They led us everywhere!::

::Not quite, Starscream. Verify my spatial measures here and here…::

There was a long moment, and then a section of the map was turned distinctly purple to mark their target area.

::Sneaky, yes, but they obfuscated the locale with the wrong mechs, Thundercracker!:: Starscream began to laugh, as their comparisons told them that a tiny section of the city had been skirted, crossed, and otherwise left off the tour on purpose. That, they knew, had to be where the servers were.

Thundercracker sent all his perceptions of that space to Skywarp in a tightly bundled data packet, his frequencies more secure with his bond-mate than Starscream's were. When the city lights dimmed for the night-term, the Seekers would be ready to move in.

`~`~`~`~`

Skywarp had recharged heavily by day, secure in the hidden nook he was resting in. When he came alert, the last of the sky glow from Mirrex was fading, and he knew he would be called shortly to do his part of the plan. He had memorized the rendered model of the city, knew just what the calculations he needed for distance were, and had all intents of making his partners envious of how perfectly he was going to execute his jumps.

He stepped out on the ledge, sensors fully alert, and started scanning the city just over the horizon. When the energy signature had dimmed to almost nothing, Skywarp thought his trine-mates would have an easy time.

Then his sensor-net exploded with data, and Skywarp could only scream once before it was choked off in a paralysis of his entire system.

`~`~`~`~`

"What do you think the administrator meant when he said it was safest in the walls during the nocturnal term?" Thundercracker asked Starscream after they were on the abandoned streets. He looked all around, seeing the towers and buildings completely shut up, no light escaping, and even the thermals from them were shielded to the point that Thundercracker's optics could only barely register the infrared signatures.

"It doesn't matter, Thundercracker. We are Seekers, and we are the best of the class!" Starscream kept his voice low, but he doggedly led the way directly to their target, since nothing was on the road to stop him after all.

"Something's going to happen," Thundercracker pointed out firmly. He was bothered by a curious silence in his comm-chatter; it wasn't like Skywarp to hold himself that quiet no matter how intent a mission got. He flicked a ping back at his bond-mate, and when nothing came back, he started actively scanning all around them with his sensors.

"What are you…" Starscream managed to say, bringing his own sensor-net fully online in answer, before neither Seeker was aware of the other -- or, indeed, anything beyond the peril they had awakened.

`~`~`~`~`

 _Skywarp could not move. He was trapped. He could not escape._

 _Thundercracker felt the press of deactivations all around him, never his own, but those could not fight back and those who tried in vain._

 _Starscream felt the cold around him, shattering cables and wires as it pressed in, breaking him, forever taking him from the sky._

As each member of the trine struggled alone to overcome the paralysis wrought by their worst nightmares within their psyches, the energy that had initially attacked them sent tendrils along the grid of the city to the two within its walls. It had been so long since Mirrex's servers had been upgraded, and the Seekers offered such highly tuned frames. Perhaps the third needed to be released, to come to his companions, so that he too could be actively taken instead of left to drain out.

`~`~`~`~`

Skywarp sagged to the ground, finding all his energy levels at the half-point when he had been full before the strike against him. The memory of being held almost made him bounce as far from this place as he could get.

He touched the link binding him to Thundercracker, and it was closed off to him, much as the one to Starscream. That steadied the Seeker long enough for fury to rise up in him. He was betting the planned raid was linked to the trauma of being trapped and now being incommunicado with two mechs that he should have felt all the way into his own core.

Thundercracker's data-burst was seared into his processors, with all those planned coordinates. Skywarp started building other jump ranges and coordinates into a net around his processor, a wall of perpetual numbers designed to keep him focused on his skill, other intrusions out, and give him a fast means of escape. Slag this stupid city if it thought it was going to get to keep his trine-mates!

`~`~`~`~`

 _Thundercracker touched a grayed out hulk that had once been a Seeker, watching as it started to disintegrate beneath his touch. Before his optics, though, the gray flaking dust blew off a deeply burnished black and purple frame._

 _::Never leaving you, ever!:: came the fierce cry of Skywarp, and Thundercracker knew it was not from within this place he was walking, but somewhere outside, somewhere he needed to be on guard against._

`~`~`~`~`

Thundercracker's optics blazed a brilliant red as awareness returned, and he realized he was now inside a building that was almost entirely made of circuitry and servers. Ahead of him, he saw the transmat device that had to have brought him… and Starscream… here. His trine-lead was still bound by a processor loop, frame locked in the rigor of whatever fear it was claiming him.

"Probably worried about his paint job, right?" Skywarp cracked at Starscream's expense, still 'warping in.

Thundercracker looked at his leader again, and saw a small movement in the digits of the left side.

"This city better hope not," was all he said, as he knew his leader was not in need of any outside aid to break the thrall.

`~`~`~`~`

 _Starscream raged as the ice pressed in, the sky turned to jagged pieces of freezing death stabbing through thinner plates. His voice rang out, shrill and shattering the ice encasing his helm.  
He would never submit. He was not as weak as they wished him to be! Starscream was a survivor, and nothing, no one would ever see him fall!_

`~`~`~`~`

Skywarp and Thundercracker had already turned their blasters on the transmat device, rather than allow the city a way to bring other combatants into the room they were in. When the shriek of rage off to their side announced Starscream was back with them, mentally and physically, identically vicious smiles graced the Seeker's faces. Both had learned, sometimes intimately, that putting Starscream at a disadvantage was the fastest way for him to prove his superiority.

It proved to be none too soon as a nebulous form of energy materialized, half blinding the trine with their hyper-aware sensors. Hastily, the trio shut down as much of their sensor-nets as they could without fully cutting themselves off from needed data, while syncing into one unit, sharing a battle display across their bandwidth.

The first whip of energy cut through the upper third of Skywarp's wing, sending pain through all three, but not truly causing crippling damage. Had Skywarp taken the blow alone, it might have knocked his processor offline for a moment, but buffered as he was, he kept upright, circling.

::Both of you, cut to optics only; I need the sensors!:: Starscream demanded. There was an incredulous moment between them, before each of the bonded pair saw.

If the battle link could split the pain of damage off into being manageable, then maybe one set of sensors split between three processors could allow the trine to fully see what they battled and overcome it.

Starscream began analyzing the data feed immediately, allowing Skywarp and Thundercracker to defend them until he could grasp just where the energy creature was drawing its power from. Energy manipulation was his specialty; it had allowed him to create his beloved null-rays. As he separated the defensive and offensive energies into patterns, he began to perceive a third energy beneath it all, a life force, one that drew directly from the floor upon which they stood.

::Into the air!::

No sooner did Starscream think it than his trine obeyed, blasting at the reaching tendrils trying to slice their wings and stabilizers free. Starscream brought his blasters forward and pointed down, just at the base of the creature, and fired the null-rays on full.

`~`~`~`~`

Megatron looked peeved as Soundwave reported an incoming data stream from a previously unconnected node. Moments after the data stream began, a comm request was placed on the main view screen of the command center.

"Mighty Megatron, I have but to inform you that Mirrex, and its servers, are completely within my grasp," Starscream sneered.

"Yours?"

Starscream smiled, a rogue's smile that promised melee and chaos at every turn. "In our cause's name, of course, my lord," he purred, tone gone to new and sickening levels of cloying loyalty. Megatron knew it for what it was, a ploy to make appearances of being committed, and yet still strong enough to hover on his own thrusters.

Starscream was every bit as dangerous as he had theorized the day he had conquered Vos. Megatron kept his smile hidden for now.

It would be useful, no doubt, to keep the Air Commander a while longer.

"Return home once Soundwave is finished taking the information." With that command, Megatron cut the communication.

`~`~`~`~`


End file.
